An enemy has been killed!

  SHUTDOWN

  “Hell yeah, that went smooth!” Trever pumped a fist after killing boBreaker. “Okay, since I’m already here, I’mma go defend Top.”

  “No, push Mid.” Yuel said.

  “Huh? Why? They gonna to push Top , we gotta defend.”

  “I know, but you better push Mid.” Yuel insisted. “I suggested trading a Jungler for a Carry to give us the push advahe only way I see us winning right now is by taking Mid, even at the expense giving up Top and Bot.”

  “Heh,” Roi chuckled. “First you sacrificed poor lil’ Dan, now you sacrifies. You’re a Chessmaster alright, lol.”

  “I’m not sure I like this.” Trever objected. “They gonna bring a mage, bruiser and assassin to push Top. I’m sure we gonna lose the Golem if I don’t help right now.”

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Yuel was quick to defend his tactic. “Even though I said ‘give up’ the nes, I didn’t mean we’re going to just sit and watch them take Top. Me and Gilbert will keep them at bay.”

  “2v3 sounds like a disaster. They gonna take the Golem.”

  “Yes, most likely.” Yuel nodded. “But, it’ll take them some time. Meanwhile, you push Mid. You killed their Carry, so ush faster than them for a while. The only way I see us winning this game is by pushing all the way through Mid. So, everything is riding on you, Carry.”

  “Riding on me...” Trever blinked and sed his teammates. Everybody’s eyes were on him. He was the captain and the Carry, and now the responsibility for seg victory was also dropped on his shoulders.. “Heh, ain’t that cool!? I got it! I’ll carry us to victuys!” He dashed to Mid right away!

  “Heh, what simpleton.” Gilbert whispered to Yuel. “Good job roping him into that one.”

  “Hm? I just said the truth.” Yuel rolled his eyes. “A lot is riding on how far he push Mid.”

  “Heh, I see. Well, now that you firig him into doing your bidding, I hope you got an actual pn for defending Top.”

  “Not really.” Yuel admitted. “We just defend, that’s all.”

  “You serious? We ’t hold them long just the two of us. Our minions will be pretty useless too, sihe pushers are ing at us with a mage.”

  “A hybrid mage.” Yuel corrected. “His push potential is nowhere near what you expect from a pre, especially now in te game.”

  “We’re finally going to punish that? Great.” Gilbert nodded in approval. “It’s rather irritating how he’s beeing away with a hybrid build for so long. He somehow mao both be a huge pain in team fights and still clear waves fast enough.”

  “Yeah, he sure knows how to py that off-meta build.” Yuel agreed. “But, he ’t fool the math.”

  Warlock was a mage primarily pyed as Mid, but he had enough utility to be a viable Support too. Same as with any other flexible mage, the build for a Mid Warlock greatly differed from a Support Warlock build. While Mid Warlock focused primarily on building poeion, Support Warlock prioritized defense and utility

  However, Freezer’s Warlock didn’t fall under either of these categories. He built a Hybrid Warlock, bining items from both Mid Warlod Support Warlock. Thus, he had just enough power to push nes and also greatly impact team fights with his utility. Truly, he had the best of both worlds.

  However, no matter how great the hybrid build souhere’s a reason why only the specialized builds were sidered meta. Pyers could only build 5 items throughout a match, so a hybrid build had to split said 5 slots between offense and utility. As a result, Hybrid Warlock couldn’t reach the same damage output as a pure Mid Warloo matter how well he pyed. That’s just simple math, there’s ing math.

  So, even though the Mid Laner was usually only sed to the Carry in term of push potential, Freezer’s clear speed didn’t live up to that expectation. It was difficult to punish this build during the mid game, but the te game is where the difference was going to be critical.

  bo Pyromancer and Hybrid Warlock, huh. Yuel smiled. Breaker and Freezer pyed off-meta builds, yet they were the most impactful ehis match. He didn’t approve of these builds by any means. Yet, he couldn’t help but respect the pyers for mastering the builds enough to make them petitively viable.

  With that being said, he was going to exploit the weaknesses of these off-meta builds as much as possible. There’s no pce for ses in a petitive match. There’s only one goal: to win at any cost.

  As expected, he and Gilbert mao keep the three pushers at bay. Gilbert’s Eleancer was built like a textbook Mid, so his ability to outclear Freezer pyed a huge role. Thanks to Gilbert wiping out enemy waves faster than Freezer cleared allied waves, the enemy couldn’t get any minions into the Golem’s range.

  pared to that, Yuel barely affected the progress of minions on ne due to his low damage output. Instead, his job was to shield Gilbert with Gaia’s Prote, denying any opportuilbert down. He also occasionally pulled an enemy into the Golem’s rah Nature’s Grasp, making them receive sizable damage from the Golem.

  Uo make any progress, the eeam must had gotten agitated. The Viking rushed into the Golem’s rahout any minions apanying him, he po tank the Golem all by himself. A bold move, sidering they had no Carry.

  With no enemy minions in the Golem’s rahe Golem’s attad defense were at their highest. The Viking was tanky enough to tank the Golem for a while despite this handicap, but his efforts were overshadowed by the enemy’s ck of Carry. The Warlock’s basics cked a pund the Vampire only dished out high damage against pyers, not structures. It came across as a desperate push, they probably thought it’d pass because they had been dominating the game so far.

  “Let’s focus the Vampire first.” Yuel said.

  “Prioritizing kills over defense, huh.” Gilbert smiled meaningfully. “Got it. Let’s see where this goes.”

  If they wao put oimal defehey’d o go after the Viking tanking the Golem. Ohe Viking was out of the picture, the Golem would shift its attention to one of the squishier ehe enemy would be forced to retreat right away.

  But, instead, Yuel wao use this opportunity to score as many kills as possible, even at the expense of losing the Golem. Saving a tower was usually sidered more valuable than sg a kill, but ie game it wasn’t as clear cut due to long respawn times. Also, StormBlitz were pying from behind, so every kill they scored was a huge deal.

  Alright, here goes. Yuel exhaled and trated straight ahead. Blink and pull him. Blink and pull. Just along this line, o aim.

  He repeated the sario multiple times in his head to build fidehe py he was about to perform was meically demanding, not something an all-thumbs pyer like him could pull on a whim. To make make things easier for himself, he alighe enemy Vampire in a straight line ahead. This way, he’d just have to move in a straight line and wouldn’t o especially aim at the Vampire.

  “I’ll blink and pull the Vampire.” Yuel announced and activated Blink, telep a short distance ahead. He immediately followed up with Nature’s Grasp, hitting the Vampire with the stretched tree brahe Vampire didn’t eve a ce to react to this assault. It was a quid slick py, which Yuel could only execute by preparing ahead of time and making the ditions easier for himself.

  As soon as the Vampire ulled clilbert fired a basic attack to apply oric Charge on the Vampire and followed up with Lightning. The lightning struck the Vampire fh damage, made even higher by the Electric Charge on the Vampire. On top of that, it applied yet another Electric Charge on the Vampire.

  But, it wasn’t dohe lightning bouoward the enemy with Electric Charge: the Viking. It dealt lower damage, but it applied another Electric Charge and bounced yet again!

  Viking and Vampire were the only enemies around with Electric Charge and they were close enough to each other. Thus, Lightning ping-ponged between them for a total of 6 times. The Vampire almost escaped the Golem’s area in the meantime, but it was futile.

  An enemy has been killed!

  The Vampire blew up. Regardless of distance, Gilbert’s Electrical Explosio off the 4 Electric Charges inflicted on the Vampire. There was no ce of esg in the first pce.

  Good, that’s one important kill. Optimally, the arget would be Freezer. Unfortunately, he positioned himself too well. Yuel had no idea how to pick Freezer off without putting Gilbert at risk. Therefore, they had no choice but to focus the Viki.

  An enemy has been killed!

  An allied Golem has beeroyed!

  In the end, the eook down the Golem. However, they had to pay for it with the deaths of their Vampire and Viking. Only Freezer got away, despite Yuel and Gilbert’s attempt to chase.

  One Golem for two deaths. Was it worth it for the eeam? In the long run, it would certainly pay off. However, Yuel had no iiing this match to that point.

  While the enemies were busy pushing Top, Trever took down Mid Turret a pushing all the way to Mid Golem. There was nobody around to halt his progress, so he blitzed through the h ease. Iime it took three eo finish off the Top Golem, Trever destroyed Mid Turret from 70% HP and brought Mid Golem down to 40% HP. That’s how good a Carry ushing during te game.

  Only now, that the ancer respawned and the Freezer returo base, Trever was forced to retreat. He couldn’t destroy the Golem in time, but this push turhe tides in Mid.

  “Phew, ’t believe this really worked.” Trever exhaled once he retreated to safety. “’t believe they let me get away with this. Their defense was so tight until now, the heck happened?”

  “It was tight thanks to the Warlod ancer.” Yuel expined. While boBreaker was the core of the enemy’s offense, Freezer was the team’s shield. And, both of them were often supported by the ancer, who knew both how to enhance Breaker’s aggression and to solidify Freezer’s defense.

  StormBlitz tackled Freezer’s defense multiple times so far, to no avail. He always khe right pd time to be at. So, instead of breaking through his defe was smarter to dodge it altogether. Based on how passively he pyed during the ning phase and that he went for a hybrid build instead of full damage, it’s clear he was more fortable defending than attag. Therefore, as long as StormBlitz could sidestep his defehey didn’t have worry about his offeential.

  Back when Trever pushed Mid, the ancer was dead and Freezer was stu Top. In other words, the key defender and his backup were both missing, That’s why Yuel ordered to push Mid with that timing.

  “Wow, that’s some deep thoughts right there, bro!” Trever ughed and smacked Yuel on the back. Ugh, it hurt.

  “It isn’t over yet.” Gilbert pointed out. “Our Top Golem is out and the other two arely healthy either. It was an iing pn, but I don’t quite see what we gained from it.”

  “Pushing all the way through Mid is the only way I see us winning this.” Yuel expined. “I know it doesn’t look like we gained much from this, but that’s the only path I saw to victory.”

  “Hmm, alright then. What’s on the menu?”

  “There are multiple options, but... Yeah, I think this one is the best.” Yuel o himself. “Dan is about to respawn, so he, Gilbert and Trever should go kill the Overlord together.”

  “ow!” Trever excimed. “Ain’t that dangerous as heck? They still got two pyers alive, soon three.”

  “I know there’s a huge risk, I believe I said my pn was risky from the beginning.” Yuel sighed. Holy, justifying every little py he suggested was getting tedious. Gilbert’s shot-calls weren’t questioned much, so why only Yuel?

  Sigh, whatever. He had to keep the pn rolling if he wahe team to grasp victory. To make the discussion short and simple, he brought up his usual argument. “I don’t see us making a eback if we ’t take the Overlord here.”

  “Okay, gotcha.” Trever nodded, satisfied with this overly simple expnation. Well, he was a simpleton, after all.

  “You sure like busing the ‘this is the only option’ argument.” Gilbert pointed.

  “Ugh, well....” Yuel had nothing to say back. Thankfully, Gilbert kept his voice low, so only Yuel could hear that remark. There’s no telling how the rest would react upon hearing that, so he was thankful Gilbert didn’t call him out on this. It’s clear Gilbert harbored some doubts regarding Yuel’s game p he kept giving Yuel ces to prove it was going to lead to victory. Yuel couldn’t tarnish this trust, he had to make his pn work no matter what.

  “Anyway, you three do the Overlord while I occupy the eeam.” Yuel expined. “Dan, buy Teleport so you get to the Overlord faster.”

  “Wait a minute,” Dan made a face. “You wao spend gold on a utility skill? Even though I lost my full build for Deus Shield?”

  “Yes. Getting to the Overlord as fast as possible is top priority.”

  “Is that so.” Dan rolled his eyes. “But, if it’s just me, Trever and Gil, who gonna tank the Overlord? I don’t think Trever’s lifesteal gonna cut it.”

  “You will.”

  “Eh?”

  “You have Deus Shield and you buy a Lv.1 Mistmail after buying Sprint, thanks to the gold we got when Trever destroyed the Mid Turret.”

  “Heh, so your pn all along was to turo a bruiser.”

  “Yes, that’s the idea.” Yuel hat’s a decision he made after evaluating Dan’s worth as an assassin this match.

  As an assassin, Dan’s job was to pick off key targets, he Carry and Mid. However, said key targets, Breaker and Freezer, were irregurities this match. Hybrid Warlock built more defeems thaypical Mid Laner, so it was harder to burst him down. Oher hand, bo Pyromancer had su absurdly high burst that getting close to her spelt immediate doom.

  With all of that sidered, it wasn’t worth keeping Dan as an assassin. Even though he had to sacrifice his finished build to make the switch from assassin to bruiser, a half-baked bruiser was going to be more impactful than full-fledged assassin right now. Especially, sihe bruiser build allowed him to tank the Overlord’s destructive attacks.

  “Hmm, so the Deus Shield idea wasn’t just to stall their Pyro.” Gilbert o himself after hearing the gist of Yuel’s reasoning.

  “Aha! I k!” Dan excimed. “That kamikaze was just the prologue. I knew I was meant freater things!” He happily followed Yuel’s instrus now, without raising further objes.

  Phew, it went through. Yuel sighed in relief. Dan wasn’t a simpleton like Trever, so it was harder to vince him py along with tactics he found questionable. Fortunately, Yuel mao eloquently present his reasoning in a way that resonated with Dan. He should really practice this skill some more.

  “He bought it, huh.” Gilbert smirked. “You sure know how to excite them about your unventional pys.”

  “It may have bee a habit.” Yuel shrugged. “I spend too much time with a goof who has to be excited about doing things he doesn’t fully agree with, otherwise he’ll throw a tantrum.”

  “I see.” Gilbert chucked. “So, destroying the Mid Turret gave Dan just enough gold to buy both Teleport and Mistmail. And, we got a ve Checkpoint Ward not too far from the Overlord. Then, there’s also me and Trever being close to the Overlord, so we start right away. Was that all part of the pn?”

  “Yes, I sidered your future positions and gold after the ‘kamikaze’ py.” Yuel nodded. “Are you saying I missed something?”

  “No, not at all. On the trary, you thought everything so thhly I ’t find anything to nitpick. Your pn started off on the wrong foot with me, but it’s ing together now..”

  “Oh, thank you.” Yuel smiled. He felt awkward for taking away the shot-caller role from Gilbert and suggesting pys which GIlbert couldn’t agree with. But, it seemed they were finally on the same page.

  “So, we’re seriously going for the Overlord? In this situation?” Trever asked. “This is risky as hell, guys.”

  “But hey, it’s ‘our only way to win’.” Gilbert parroted Yuel’s cheap excuse. “I agree, it IS one hell of a risky py. But, let’s give it a yway. If we take the Overlord here, I see us actually winning. That’s already way better than anything we had before.”

  “Heh, so we’re going all in because we got nothing else? That’s ballsy. I like it!” Trever grinned and dashed toward the Overlord. The strike team sisting of Trever, Gilbert and Dan was finally in agreement. The and most critical step in Yuel’s pn was about to begin.

  “Roi, join me in Mid when you respawn.” Yuel requested. “With just their Warlod Cryo, they don’t have enough offense. I want to lock them in their base.”

  “Roger. Let’s imprison these scrubs, lol.” Roi grinned. “Though, their Pyro is ing back soon.”

  “No problem, there’s still twenty seds.” Yuel said after examining boBreaker’s respawn timer. Twenty seds was a good here was much they could achieve in that time, such as taking out the Overlord. That’s exactly how Yuel envisiohis situation, all the way back when he ordered Dan to it “kamikaze”.

  Dan’s suicide atta boBreaker looked like simple a 1-for-1 on surface, but it was more than that. Dan died some time before Breaker, so he respawned before her as well. In addition, Breaker was on a killing spree at the time, so her respawn time was extended upon being shut down. It’s a eback mei game, which Yuel abused to the fullest here.

  Thanks to that, Yuel and Roi had plenty of time to push Mid and force the eo react. While the enemies were busy defending Mid, Trever, Gilbert and Da up he Overlord’s camp and started their raid. Everything proceeded smoothly, just as Yuel envisio. The remaining question was how well his diversion, that of him and Roi being in Mid, would work on the enemy,

  “Okay, I’m back, boys!” Jennifer announced as her Pyromancer FINALLY respawned. Jeez, that only took forever. “Let’s get these guys dead and push Mid all the way!”

  “Something is wrong here...” Alex mumbled.

  “Heh, spiracy theories again?” Jennifer chuckled.

  “I just don’t get it.” Alex tilted his head. “They pushed Mid all the way to the Golem and had a 5v2 situation. Why switch back to defense so soon? I don’t see what the Druid and Knight are trying to achieve in Mid alo’s like they’re buying time...”

  “Meh, no point overthinking how potatos py.” Jennifer shrugged. “I also think they should’ve went all out in Mid while they had the ce, maybe then they’d actually get somewhere. Though, I’m sure we would’ve crushed them anyway.”

  “I haven’t seen the rest of their team for a while now. Maybe they’re doing Overlord?”

  “No way.” Jennifer shook her head. “Both their tanks are here. Their Ranger didn’t build enough lifesteal to tank stuff, so they don’t have anybody else to soak damage.”

  “Yeah, you’re right...” Alex answered relutly.

  “, enough with the spiracy theories already. Just focus on what’s in front of you.”

  “I wonder, how do you expin their ret absence?”

  “Easy. Their Electro and Ranger were injured, right? So, they retreated to base. And, the Lancer respawned just a little before me, so he didn’t get anywhere yet. Rex, nobody is doing Overlord-”

  An enemy defeated the Overlord!

  “SAY WHAT!?” Jennifer jumped.

  “Told you so.” Alex sighed.

  “But how!? Who ta!?”

  “Hmm. Their Lancer, probably?”

  “How does that even work? He has an assassin build, he ’t- Oh. OOOH!” Everything clicked in Jennifer’s head! Last time she faced the Lancer, he had a Lv.3 Deus Shield and ay item slht! He must had discarded his assassin build a for a bruiser build! If he bought at least one more defeems, tanking the Overlord ossible. Rough, but possible.. Shit, that’s how they did it! Dang it!

  “They totally had us there. Grrrr” Jennifer hissed. “I bet they’re pnning to go full gas in Mid.”

  “Most likely.” Alex nodded. “With the Overlord buff, they actually got a ce to break through.”

  “Nah, not happening! Not under my watch!” Jennifer procimed. “The 3v5 at the beginning gonna be rough, but once we stop them - the game is ours! Let’s do this, boys!”

  “Yeah!”

  “Go go go!”

  Everybody roared along with Jennifer, except for the zy bum. “Yeah, let’s go and all that...”

  Losing the Overlord was a nasty blow, but so what? They were still a huhousand pert gonna win this thing! No question about it! Without losing any spirit, the Leopards prepared to hold their ground in the game’s most critical mome.

  “We’llt push Mid once everybody gets here.” Yuel expined.

  “No shit, Sherlock.” Roi chuckled.

  “Let’s go, boys!” Trever howled.

  “This is probably our first and st ce to win this,” Gilbert said. “Don’t mess up.”

  “Huh, turns out my kamikaze may win us the whole game.” Dan smiled wryly. “What I say? Awesome.”

  They had a real ce at winning now, everybody felt it. Through a sequence of unventional pys, Yuel turhis hopeless match around. The whole time, he doubted whether such high-risk high-reward tactics would work in a petitive match. Fortunately, they were were plenty effective. Now that he came this far, he was going to trust his tactitil the very end!

  “First, we should take out their Warlock.” Yuel said. “Trever, you set a trap? I’ll pull him into it.”

  “No problem.”

  The most dangerous pyer on the eeam was boBreaker, with her scary burst potential. However, the one who influeeam fights the most and made life difficult for everybody - was Freezer. His hybrid build allowed him trol team fights via enhanced CC effects, while still dishing out det damage. Each time StormBlitz faced Freezer directly: they either lost the team fight, or were stalled for so long that they had no choice but give up on.

  Therefore, Freezer was the first objective. Until they elimihe enemy’s defensive key pyer, there’s no oving forward.

  “Let’s pretend we’re going all in right off the bat.” Yuel said. “Move fgressively, but don’t spend any of your important skills yet.”

  “Roger.” Trever saluted.

  “Sounds good.” Gilbert nodded.

  “Lol, let’s do this, bois!” Roi shouted.

  “So, we’re baiting, huh. Sounds like fun.” Dan smiled mischievously.

  This was it, the decisive fight. They were either going to push through or fal. Either way, the game would be decided by the oute of this final assault.

  “Here they e!” Jennifer announced. “They’re going full force, don’t hold anything back! We’ve beaten the crap outta them like twenty times already, so let’s do that again!”

  “Right!”

  “No problem!”

  “Of course.”

  “Whatever...”

  Despite the ret losses, the Leopards’ morale was at an all time high. No matter how bad things got, Jennifer never doubted their victory. Her mental image hadn’t ged even ohroughout the match. It was the image of her team, trampling over a bunch of inexperienced scrub. Maintaining this positive image was “50% of the victory”, acc to their coach. Among everybody oeam, and maybe even among everybody in the whole club, Jennifer excelled at crafting an unwaverial image better than anybody.

  “Heh, look at these amateurs.” Jennifer shook her head. “They’re going all out because they got the Overlord buff, thinking they’re all that. We gonna stop them here! Alex, use your ult! Quick!”

  “I got it already, o yell in my ear...” Alex cracked his ned sighed. This gung-ho atmosphere was so not him. Couldn’t this chick py quietly for once? Well, whatever. “You sure you wao ult right away? That’s usually our trump card for team fights.”

  “Yeah, let ‘em have it! Just look how hard they’re pushing, we got this fight in the bag once we hold them down.”

  “If you say so.” Alex wasn’t as vinced, especially sidering the enemy’s ret movements. They pyed aggressive, but smart. Therefore, risking everything on one reckless push didn’t sound like them. Well, either way, this hyper aggressive py put Alex between a rod a hard pce. He didn’t want to spend his ult before firming the enemy’s game pn, but he also couldn’t possibly allow them push the Golem as they pleased.

  There was no choice here, not really. He activated Eldritightmare, ing the whole area in darkness. The effectiveness of the CC was greatly mitigated pared to its full potential, because all five enemies were caught in its ra didirely rob their vision and didn’t slow them that much, but it did its job of disorienting them. It should be enough to thwart the enemy’s hyper aggressive push... That is, if they really po push this aggressively in the first pce.

  As soon as Alex activated Eldritightmare, the whole eeam fell back. Their rea was smooth, as if they po retreat like that from the get-go.

  “Wha!? How did they get away so fast?” Jennifer excimed.

  “They baited us. What a pain...” Alex rolled his eyes. He suspected the enemy’s hyper push was a trap, but there’s no way their idiot captain was going to listen to him anyway. Whatever. The match robably already decided, it’s just a matter of time now...

  “Watch out for the pull!”

  “Huh? Ah!” Tree braretched in Alex’s dire. He had to dodge! Roll aside! Quick... Shit.

  The Druid’s branches pulled the Warlht into the ter of the eeam. They ripped Alex apart like a pack of hungry wolves. It was over. Oh well.

  You have been killed!

  “How the hell ya didn’t dodge that!?” Jennifer ranted.

  “Yeah, my bad.” Alex averted his eyes and sighed. That pull wasn’t hard to dodge, he uood that in his head. But, for some reason his body failed to catch up with his thoughts. How annoying.

  “Behold, that’s what happens when you such! If you bothered showing your damn face more often in the club, you’d dodge that kind of stuff no problem.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” Alex shrugged. Seriously, this chick was such a pain. Well, none of that mattered anyway, they pretty already lost. At least, he left the stage early and could take a break now.

  “Okay, this o smooth!” Trever said. “Good pull on that Warlock, man. You totally caught the guy off guard.”

  “Thank you.” Yuel smirked. He cooked up that calcuted pull after how Freezer reacted to various bat sarios.

  Freezer was oop of his game when his oppos pyed aggressively. However, his movements turrangely sluggish the moment his enemies made a defensive py. Whether it was due to a ck of experience or a ck of practice, Yuel couldn’t tell. Either way, this gring weakness in Freezer’s defense was something Yuel couldn’t ignore.

  As soon as the team switched from hyper aggression to pying defense, Yuel took advantage of Freezer’s momentary fusion. It was risky, sielegraphed Nature’s Grasp was easy enough to dodge from this distance. Luckily, the py paid off big time.

  With the Warlock out of the picture, StormBlitz gaira breathing room. The key enemy defender was out, so nobody was going to punish them too hard for pying greedily.

  Nothing was 100% guaranteed yet, but everybody in StormBlitz felt they were about to settle this. They had unstoppable momentum right now and were going to push with it all the way to the enemy Colossus.

  Regardless of how the push was going to turn out, this is where the match would be decided!